Street gallery NOWALLS

The new layer of the NETSTEN project will be dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the legendary street festival at the Winzavod

On May 20, a new exhibition of street art will open — the ninth layer of the NETSTEN project.

The ninth layer of NETSTEN refers to the Graffiti Winzavod festival, which became a defining event in the development of Russian street art in 2006. At that time, the festival introduced graffiti, one of the most relevant forms of artistic expression in the urban environment, to the general public for the first time.

The first and only legal street art gallery in Moscow, NETSTEN, is located along the railway tracks on the way to two creative clusters — the Vinzavod Center for Contemporary Art and Artplay. And it represents more than 100 meters of modern art in the open air.

"After 20 years, the CCA Winzavod returns to one of the first events that opened the history of the space. The new NETSTEN layer is dedicated to the anniversary of the festival. Over the past 20 years, the ex-participants have come a long way and today present their projects in museums, and their works are in private collections. The Graffiti Winzavod festival has gained legendary status, which influenced a new generation of street wave artists and the space around them, and initiated the process of integrating street art into the urban environment," said Sofya Trotsenko, founder of the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art. 

Artists who rely on pictorial, conventionally "traditional" techniques in their work are invited to participate in the NETSTEN 9 exhibition. The curator was Nikita Dusto, an artist, one of the creators and a member of the creative association 10.203. The exhibition will also feature artists Lovemarket, Versu Flow, Anton Sputnik, Egor TOY, Tigran Kostan La, Ilya Malomechenko.

The graffiti by the artist Lovemarket is made in monochrome graphics with expressive lines and contrast, which creates an image through silhouette and movement, which refers to classical techniques, but in a modern urban context. Versu Flow constructs the artist's dialogue with the city, returns color and meaning to the facade. Anton Sputnik uses an unusual scale and color change, focusing on the depth of the plot. Egor TOY's work "20 years at lunch" reflects the path of artists who began with the 2006 festival and recalls the beginning of their work and the importance of art as the main "bread" of the creator. Tigran Kostan La in the image of a child conveys the naivety and spirit of street art.

The NETSTEN project is being implemented by the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the Moscow Department of Urban Planning Policy, and the co-curator of the project is the architect of the future of VEB.Russian Federation, Sergey Kuznetsov, Managing Partner of Strelka Design Bureau.

 ABOUT PICTURES:

• Lovemarket: "Our work depicts two dogs running after each other. This is an image of structured movement — a combination of the living and the mechanical. It refers to the rhythm, repetition, and cohesion of elements. The viewer can perceive it as a metaphor for the urban environment — a system where everything is connected and in constant motion. The work is done in monochrome graphics, close to the charcoal drawing. She is characterized by expressive line, contrast and attention to texture, due to which the image is built not through color, but through rhythm, silhouette and movement. This approach refers to classical graphic techniques, but it is transferred to the urban environment, where it begins to work on a different scale and context."

• Versu Flow: "This work brilliantly illustrates the idea that street art is not an external intervention. It is a process in which an artist, like an empathic psychologist, enters into a deep dialogue with the city. He heals the gray facades, restoring color, shape and meaning to them, and in this act of creation he himself becomes an integral part of the healed urban organism."

• Anton Sputnik: "The idea came to my mind when I was thinking about the meaning of street art. I wondered how we absorb art in its various forms every day. My work is done in a symbolic style. Through external images, I strive to convey the meaning of the work. And my style stands out for the unusual scale of the objects, the change in their color and the emphasis on the semantic depth of the plot."

• Egor TOY: "The work "20 years at lunch" directly speaks to what happened to many of the artists who participated in the 2006 festival. Many of them have come a long way, and now they are fed by paint, or rather art, which they do to this day. For me personally, this date marks the time when I first picked up an aerosol can of paint and made my first tag. The plate with paint and the spoon in this drawing indicate the artist's main bread."

• Tigran Kostan La: "The idea of my work came about thanks to an anti-graffiti leaflet I accidentally came across, where a little guy covers his face with his hand holding a can of paint. I liked this image and decided to embody it in my work. There is a certain naivety and childishness in it, which is often inherent in the spirit of street art."

The NETSTEN Street Gallery was opened in 2019 on the initiative of the CCA Winzavod with the support of Moskomarchitecture. During his time at the gallery, eight exhibitions have already been shown, attended by leading artists in the field of contemporary art.: Kirill Kto, Misha Most, Vova Nootk, Max Ima, Gosha Ykor, Zhihar, Zhenya Voynar, Andrey Aznet, Sergey Ovseikin (Zukclub), Anton Sputnik, Seryozha acse, SY, Nikita Khodak, Dmitry Drenin, NADYA.O., Sasha Elshi, Alexey Mednoy, Denis Kibeda, Sergey IMAN, Timur FORK and Ilya Case and many others.